seen similar issues before. As rgd1101 said we need full specs whether its an actual PC or VM. This happens usually one of two reasons and they are usually do to extremes on each side.
1) Not enough RAM. (less than 64MB) or 2) Too much Ram.
I have see older OS'es have similar errors when doing VM's and you give it too much RAM. set ram, or just install 64MB or 128MB of ram and try again.